The collection of bottles and cans on the table was most impressive, and Kazuki stared at the sight with his mouth open. They all contained alcohol, of various brands and types. Most of the bottles were miniatures, but there were a couple of larger ones in the mix. "These are..." He tried to process what Mizoguchi had just explained to him.

It appeared a rumor had spread that it was the Tatsumiyajima ace pilot's 20th birthday, and back where he came from this was considered to be the age of adulthood and also the legal drinking age. The rumor had gone that way to claim Kazuki had never tasted alcohol - which was more or less the truth, of course - and this in turn had prompted the local army members and even some civilians to decide that he needed to get drunk at least once in his life. Jonathan and Billy had showed up with a couple of older military guys earlier to drop off the goods, which were now neatly gathered on a table in the Alvis plane. "These. Are all for me?" Kazuki muttered, still trying to process the whole thing.

"Yep," Mizoguchi said. "You heard what the guys said. Got to try it while you can! Besides, considering we're rationing any food related items pretty tightly, I'm quite impressed they were able to gather this much." He patted Kazuki on the shoulder. "Can't let them down, now can you? Go on, drink up."

Considering the situation in general, getting drunk wasn't exactly how Kazuki had planned to spent his birthday. "But all these?" He questioned, giving Mizoguchi a helpless look. "Won't you at least have a drink with me, Mr. Mizoguchi?"

"Hah, no way," Mizoguchi replied, waving his hand dismissively. "I can't be drinking your gifts, plus I've got to be on stand-by in case something happens. You're the one with the night off, so you enjoy your birthday gift." He gave Kazuki a grin. "Consider it a bit of a rite to adulthood."

"But..." Kazuki stared at the assorted collection of alcohol in despair. "I don't think I can drink all these. Don't think I want to drink all these, anyway, and I really don't want to drink alone. That..." He trailed off, picking up a beer can and studying it, noticing that the text printed on it was in a language he couldn't recognize. "That sounds like someone lonely."

"It can't be helped," Soushi cut in from the side where he had been looking at some maps. He placed the tablet with the file he had been reading down, got up from his seat and moved over to where Kazuki stood. "I'll drink with you."

Kazuki blinked and looked at him with slight confusion. "Soushi," he then said with a hint of disapproval in his voice. "You're not old enough to drink."

"Actually I am, if we go to technicalities," Soushi replied. "As the matter of fact, did you know that the land we're currently in? China was located here in the old days." Kazuki looked at him, unimpressed, and Soushi folded his arms. "The legal drinking age in China was eighteen. I'm also fairly certain Neo UN goes by eighteen, with special allowances made to Fafner pilots. We're cooperating with a group under the command of a NUN General and following their laws, are we not? There you have it."

"Which kind of reminds me, I need to tell the guys out there to stop trying to offer Akira drinks," Mizoguchi commented, seeming thoughtful. "Seen them do that a few times, but at least he's been smart enough to decline so far. I think." He shrugged as he looked at the two. "But I suppose you're technically correct here, and if the Tatsumiyajima authority - which would be me, yes - doesn't happen to see anything, it's fine. Right then, I've got some weapon maintenance to do..." With that, he walked out.

Soushi picked up a can of beer and opened it as he took a seat next to the table. "You heard the man in charge. Let's enjoy these, responsibly, if we may. It's a fine time to be drinking anyway, since we had our meals just a while ago. If we drink water with these, it'll keep the undesired side effects to the minimum. Besides," he added, studying the can. "Age has nothing to do with maturity, and if I dare to claim anything, I'm definitely the more mature person here." He took a long sip of his drink.

The expression on Soushi's face went between varying degrees of questionable at that point, and Kazuki sat there and stared at him, not sure if he should've laughed. Best not, he decided. "...Uh. So how is it?" He then asked, looking at the can he was holding himself.

"Absolutely disgusting," Soushi admitted with a straight face. "But these were a gift. You shouldn't dishonor the fact that those soldiers wanted to share their most probably diminishingly low stash with you on your special day, so drink up."

Kazuki looked at the can for another moment then opened it carefully. "I suppose," he said, finally taking a seat by the table. He took a deep breath then drank some of the beer. Considering Soushi's earlier reaction, he knew what to expect to a degree, but it was still not a taste he was used to. He swallowed the drink then stared at the can for a moment. "Why do people drink this, again?"

"I gather it's an acquired taste," Soushi reasoned. "And I think this might just be your cheap generic brand beer, when finer things exist." He took another drink from his can, not looking much more impressed than he had been when drinking it the first time. "It might take a little while to get used to. Let's check out the other options," he said as he placed the can away. "Also, remember to drink some water," he reminded Kazuki, getting up to get a bottle of water. He poured some of it in two glasses and offered Kazuki one.

If water helped anything at this point, Kazuki wasn't sure, but he took a sip anyway. He then picked up one of the small bottles and studied the label. "Vodka? Isn't this kind of stuff stronger?" He took another two glasses then split the contents of the tiny 5cl bottle into the glasses. The clear liquid didn't look too malicious, he figured. The smell - or rather the lack of it - Kazuki was not so sure of, but at least there amount the glass had was small. "Cheers, I guess?" he said, raising his glass. Soushi picked up his, and Kazuki then emptied the glass in one go. The unfamiliar taste hit him rather strongly, and he covered his mouth, forcing himself to swallow the drink.

On his side, Soushi placed his glass down, somehow managing to keep his expression calm. "Now that I think of it," he muttered, his voice somehow strained. "We really should've mixed this with something. Juice, soda, or something, but I'm not very sure if we have anything available." He looked at the table and picked up another bottle. "There's another tiny bottle of this here, but I am definitely not drinking this raw. It's pretty strong alcohol anyway. Maybe you should instead keep this as backup medical supplies for sanitizing wounds?"

"Yeah, sounds like a plan," Kazuki muttered, still trying to recover. "Let's try something else instead."

Soushi shuffled through the collection. "There's a bottle of wine," he said, looking at one of the slightly larger bottles. "This slightly smaller one is some type of champagne. Another couple of beer cans, of some other brand." This reminded Kazuki that he still hadn't finished the first can, and he picked it up to take a drink. The taste still wasn't too great, but it wasn't as bad as he remembered. "A couple of miniature bottles of whiskey and whatever else this is, and a bottle of..." Soushi read the label. "Prosecco. A type of Italian carbonated white wine, apparently? It unfortunately appears I'm not an expect on the matter, but only one way to find out."

He looked at their glasses and shrugged. "I suppose we can't get too picky about the correct type of glasses in the situation we're in, so..." Soushi opened the bottle carefully then poured them drinks. "Looks like a suitable drink for a birthday party, at least," he noted, picking up the glass and studying the bubbly drink. "How about it, a toast in celebration of your birthday?"

Kazuki smiled and picked up his glass. "All right," he said, bringing his glass next to Soushi's for a toast. "I do wonder what this tastes like?" He studied the drink for a bit then took a sip, not sure what to expect. "Hmm. Hey, not all that bad."

"Hmm. It has this pleasant fruit taste," Soushi commented, emptying his glass. "Not too strong. Care for another glass? Might just as well drink the whole bottle since we opened it."

It would've been shame to waste a good drink, Kazuki agreed, and they had another few glasses, after which Soushi started wondering what the whiskey was like. Kazuki felt quite relaxed - a little too relaxed, maybe, but he could figure why adults drank this stuff. Some of it didn't taste too bad - the secondary option of beer they had available turned out to be tastier than the first one, too. A few drinks later, he was feeling quite good - and all this stuff was making Soushi hilariously chatty.

Quite good all the way up till he decided to go stop by the bathroom. "Huh?" Kazuki blinked, having to grab the back of his chair for support. "Strange. We've... stopped for the night, aren't we? The plane is moving."

Soushi laughed at that. "Don't be ridiculous," he said, getting up as well. "We're not..." He staggered off to the side and looked outside the window. "Oh wow, there's so many pretty lights. Is there supposed to be that many... What am I even saying." He caught himself and leaned on the wall. "Wow, you're right, the plane is really unstable. Did the Festum figure out how to remove ground? Can't be right, the Esperanto would've noticed..."

"Eh, who knows?" Kazuki managed to make it to the bathroom to take care of his business then returned after a while, only to find Soushi studying the drink selection again. "Hey did we try the chamg... Champan..." Kazuki trailed off, stepping closer to look at the bottle. "How do you pronounce that foreign stuff again?"

"Champagne!" Soushi declared. "Let's see if..." He took the bottle and studied the cap for a moment. "How do you even... Oh wait I see you need to..." He fiddled with it for a moment and managed to pop the cork off - except he had managed to shake the bottle around enough that they ended up having a shower of champagne, with the stuff spilling all over the place. "Oh wow," Soushi commented, laughing. "It really does do this stuff!"

This behavior was somehow completely off for Soushi, some corner of Kazuki's mind realized, but he was too busy laughing to think about it too hard. "A toast?" He suggested cheerfully, and Soushi filled their glasses. "Happy birthday to me! And I guess you too, Soushi, since you're old enough to drink this in some part of the world!"

The champagne tasted pretty great; Kazuki then realized there was a small bottle of sake in the mix, and they absolutely had to try that out. If this was what it was supposed to taste like, he wasn't sure, but they had also been drinking too many different things that he wasn't sure about what was what anymore.

Soushi sat there staring at his glass of water and looking thoughtful, like he had forgotten something; Kazuki glanced at his own glass as well. Right, Soushi had said something about drinking water, sometime a while back... Soushi also looked so pretty; prettier than usual, Kazuki thought. Whichever Soushi he was talking about, because there seemed to be more than one. "Hey, Sh... Soushi, are we crossing? Because there's... two of you there. I think? How does this even work out..." He moved closer, really wanting to kiss Soushi.

Except kissing Soushi was a little hard when Kazuki was slightly uncertain about where he was aiming. He ended up slumping forward then just climbed onto Soushi's lap, happily burying his fingers in Soushi's hair. "No we're not in crossing, you're drunk," Soushi whispered, chuckling. "That or Mark Nicht's cockpit is a lot more spacious than I remember. Damn it Nicht, shut up you stupid Fafner, my head is hurting."

"I'm... not drunk," Kazuki muttered, trying to kiss him again, with more success this time around. Soushi didn't even pretend to resist and kissed him back awkwardly. "You taste like... some weird drink," he mumbled as they parted for a second. "Or is that me?"

"Probably. Why are we in Nicht's cockpit making out, anyway?" Soushi wondered, his hands on Kazuki's thighs. "Or wait, this wasn't Nicht... But then why does my head hurt this bad, like all that stupid thing's pain had decided to channel itself through me or something?"

Kazuki moved in for another kiss. "We should go to bed," he mumbled, trying to get up and somehow managing to last on his feet for two steps before finding himself sitting next to the wall. How was he here, again? "Soushi... I... That pain, I'm sorry..."

"What are you sorry about?" Soushi replied, getting up from his chair and slumping straight to the floor. "Whoa Nicht, slow down. We can't..."

"Because I..." Kazuki blinked and leaned on the wall. "I... We should've talked... Years ago..." He stared at Soushi for a moment, not particularly sure what he was trying to apologize for. Something about Mark Nicht? Not that he remembered how Nicht was his fault, anyway. No wait, back in the North Pole, Mark Sein had assimilated Mark Nicht... But that had absolutely nothing to do with Soushi's head hurting, now did it, Soushi hadn't even been piloting back then.

At that point Soushi had managed to move over and he leaned closer to kiss Kazuki. "But... It's my fault that we didn't talk... Years ago," he mumbled against the kiss. "I'm the one who should apologize. I think? Kazuki, I..." He pushed Kazuki down to the floor and crawled on top of him. "...I want sex," he muttered between kisses, trying to clumsily undo Kazuki's cravat and completely failing.

"...Mmm, yeah, me too..." Kazuki tugged Soushi's hair and kissed him back. Somehow this wasn't really working out, because his head had started hurting at some point, his stomach felt uncomfortable, and more problematic than that, his body didn't seem to be in for this at all. Soushi kissed him again the went a little lower, kissing Kazuki's neck before just kind of slumping down on top of him.

That final tiny sane part of Kazuki's mind registered ten seconds later that Soushi was snoring.

Which was okay, he figured.

The world went blank.

When he opened his eyes, it had to be the morning, Kazuki concluded, simply from the part that it was light around him, and it had been dark previously. Why he was lying across the seats was another question, and wait- Was the plane moving? "Ugh..." He closed his eyes, the pounding headache so bad that he decided being passed out would've been the better option. Where were they anyway?

"Good... Morning," Soushi's voice, somewhere from his side, weakly called to him. Kazuki opened his eyes a little, finding that Soushi was sitting on the next row of seats, leaning against the backrest heavily, with a towel or something on his forehead. "Did you... sleep well? I..." Whatever he was saying cut off at that point, and Kazuki raised his head a little to look again, wondering what the hell Soushi was doing. Throwing up into a bucket on the seat next to him, it turned out. "Never again," Soushi muttered under his breath, slumping against the seat again.

The next thing Kazuki did was to wonder if there was a bucket anywhere near him, too. There was, next to the seats, thankfully.

He managed to drag himself into a sitting position after a long while. "It's not a really good morning, is it," he finally managed to reply. "And you know what, I..." At that point Soushi tossed a towel in his direction, and he pressed it against his forehead, finding it a little wet, but nice and cool. "Why do people drink, at all, again?"

Soushi chuckled a bit. "It was fun last night, wasn't it?" He closed his eyes at that point, appearing unwell. "It... Wasn't fun this morning, after Mr. Mizoguchi apparently found us sleeping in the corner. I got to listen to a rant about there being champagne everywhere, too, which we apparently get to clean up later." He sighed. "This is the fault of my miscalculation. We forgot to drink water. I did bring that up, and we even had water available, it just appears we... forgot to actually keep drinking it."

"It's not your fault," Kazuki said. "It was my birthday, and all the alcohol was mine, so..."

"You didn't exactly force me to drink," Soushi cut in. "I volunteered. Got nobody else to blame than ourselves, here. And seriously," he muttered under his breath. "For my birthday I'm just going to lock myself in my room so Kenji and them can't drag me somewhere to drink."

That made Kazuki laugh a little, considering they really had no idea where they'd be by Soushi's birthday, or if they were going to be alive in the first place. The thought made him a bit sad, but then again he had worse problems to think about right now, like the fact that existing at the current moment was quite the chore. "Augh. I've never had a headache this bad. Not even after piloting Sein all those times..."

"Mark Sein..." Soushi trailed off. "Mark Nicht. Why on earth do I have this idea that Mark Nicht is somehow at fault for this damn headache?"

Something about crossing and making out in Mark Nicht's cockpit? Kazuki was fairly certain his memory failed him. They had definitely not been anywhere near the Fafners, right? "You must've been really drunk," he replied, managing a smile.

"...Yeah."

Author's notes:

Fic title describing absolutely what these two are NOT. Such sad drunks you are, you two.

Yes considering they already ran out of coffee at this point of the show, we’ll just pretend some soldiers had personal stash left. Human nature has you preserve that one bottle of something for the good day. That never comes, so might just as well give it to the ace pilot's b-day party.

- Lady Harken (January 2016)